Photo Timestamp and Camera Model in EXIF: What Buyers Can See

Published 19 October 2026 · by Tekiba

The fields, as the EXIF standard defines them

EXIF is a standard published by CIPA, the camera makers' association; we read version 3.1 on the publication date above. The fields that matter here, with its definitions:

• Taken (DateTimeOriginal): "A tag used to record the date and time when the image was captured." To the second, in 24-hour time.
• Time zone when taken (OffsetTimeOriginal): the "offset from UTC" of that time, which narrows down where in the world the photo was taken even without GPS.
• Date and time (DateTime): "In this standard it is the date and time the file was changed."
• Camera make and Camera model: "The model name or model number of the equipment." On a phone, that is the phone.
• Lens (LensModel): "This tag records the lens's model name and model number".
• Software: the name and version of the camera's firmware or the program that wrote the file. EXIF 3.1 adds a separate tag for "the main software used for processing and editing the image."
• Camera serial number and Camera owner: a camera can record its body's serial number and an owner's name, which the standard says "shall not be rewritten".

What a buyer can read from them

None of this is hidden from someone who downloads the photo and opens it in a reader. What it can tell them:

The reverse also holds: the date in a file can be changed, so it proves nothing on its own. Apple's iPhone User Guide describes changing it in Photos:

Tap Adjust Info, then tap Adjust Date & Time or Adjust Location.

And Google's Photos Help says an edited date may not travel with the file:

When you change the date and time of your photo, the edited date and time displays in Google Photos. But if you share the photo to other apps or download it, the photo may show the original date and time saved by your camera.

So editing the date in an app is not a way to hide it. Apple's guide also says what a share carries:

Note: Sharing a photo or video includes sharing its associated metadata, such as date and time, location, device, and captions.

Which sites keep it

That depends on the site, and few say. Our article on whether Mercari, eBay and Etsy strip EXIF and GPS sets out what three marketplaces publish, which is less than you would hope. A site that re-encodes every upload may drop these fields; one that serves your original file keeps them. Unless the site tells you, assume the photo a buyer downloads is the one you uploaded.

Check a photo yourself

Our EXIF check page reads a JPEG, PNG or WebP in your browser and lists what it finds, without uploading or changing the file. It names the fields above as Taken, Time zone when taken, Date and time, Camera make, Camera model, Lens, Software, Camera owner and Camera serial number, along with any GPS position. On an iPhone, Apple's guide says the Photos app shows a photo's saved metadata too, including the device that took it, the date and time, and camera details such as the lens.

Clearing the fields from a batch

1. Add the photos to SignetDrop. They are read in the page and never uploaded. Add a watermark and resize in the same pass if you want to: at Longest edge 2048 a 4032×3024 photo becomes 2048×1536.

2. Download the ZIP. Each copy is drawn on a canvas and saved again from those pixels, which carries none of the original's EXIF across: no date taken, no time zone, no make or model, no lens, no software, no serial number, no GPS. The ZIP does record each file's modification date, as the privacy page explains.

3. Know what the paid option keeps. Keep the original EXIF is a paid option, works JPEG to JPEG only and is off unless you switch it on. With Strip GPS location left on, it drops the GPS fields, serial numbers and the camera owner's name, but keeps the date and the fields that name the camera, lens and program, so leave it off if those are what you want gone.

4. Check one copy. Drop it on the EXIF check page: the list should be empty.

What this does not do

It clears what is in the file, not what is in the picture: a newspaper, a screen showing the date or a reflection of you stays as it was shot. It cannot reach photos you have already uploaded, and what a site does with a photo after you upload it is not ours to control. Output above 2048px and larger batches are in the paid version, $29 once, with the full split on the pricing panel, and SignetDrop never writes its own name onto your photos.

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